The Bruins have two days to sort out a 6-2 loss to the Wild, and Charlie McAvoy's ejection is the loudest thing they have to answer for.
There is no game today. Boston's next one is Tuesday against the Kings, so this Sunday is about what Saturday night at TD Garden left behind, and who might not be ready for it.
McAvoy was tossed in the third period after the scrum that began with a Connor Clifton slash on Bobby Brink. He dropped the gloves with Brink and went down the tunnel while the game was already gone.
Casey Mittelstadt is the bigger unknown. The forward limped to the bench in the third period and was being looked at, so Tuesday's lineup is a real question.
Then there's the tone coming out of the room. Marco Sturm admitted the Bruins are not a Cup contender yet, and Fraser Minten called it "a humbling week for us."
Two straight losses will do that, even for a team sitting 13-6-1. Sturm's honesty is the right read, and it beats pretending a 6-2 home loss was a fluke.
What did the Bruins lose that the Wild exposed?
Conor Ryan says the Bruins already miss James Hagens, and the box score gives him some help. Pavel Zacha led Boston's forwards in ice time with 20:30.
David Pastrnak fired six shots and scored, and he still finished a -1. Jeremy Swayman stopped 19 of 24. Nikita Zadorov took 14 penalty minutes, which fits a night when the Bruins lost their composure along with the game.
Minnesota was simply better. Blake Coleman had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Hartman and Danila Yurov each scored twice. Aaron Portzline came away saying the intensity of the game was on another level.
The Bruins can still point to an 8-3-0 home record and a goal differential of +20. Those numbers are why this looks like a bad week, not a crisis. But a team that wants to be taken seriously doesn't get run out of its own building and lose a player to ejection.
There is also news from Providence. Mark Divver reported that Jake Schmaltz is out of the lineup again after he took a puck to the face in Charlotte.
Watch Monday's practice for any word on Mittelstadt and for how Sturm shapes the lines before the Kings arrive Tuesday.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.









